1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to battery-operated electronic devices in general, and more particularly to latchable battery packs and lockable storage cradles for use with such battery-operated electronic devices, and yet more particularly to controlling such devices to gracefully shut down prior to battery removal, and to gracefully turn on after battery installation.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various constructions of electrical or electronic devices, among them such that are battery-powered during at least a part of their operation. In this context, it is already known to mount one or more batteries inside a main housing of the device behind an openable battery cover. However, experience has shown that the battery replacement process is rather arduous and prone to mishaps, including battery installation with improper orientation and, hence, polarity. Moreover, the tediousness of the process and/or the concealment of the batteries within the housing tend to make the user forget to, or even choose not to, remove the batteries from the device prior to an extended period of non-use of the device. Then, the batteries may leak acid into the housing, thereby damaging the components accommodated therein beyond repair.
To avoid these problems and others along a similar vein, it has been proposed relatively recently to accommodate the batteries, whether or not they are rechargeable, in a so-called battery pack, that is, in a cartridge separate from the main housing that accommodates the batteries proper and has external terminals positioned to establish electrical connection with correspondingly positioned contacts of the main housing of the device when the battery pack is in its installed position relative to the housing.
The known arrangements work reasonably well; however, experience has shown that many, if not all, of them suffer from a significant disadvantage, namely that the battery cover door may accidentally open, or the battery pack can become accidentally dissociated from the main housing of the device, be it as a result of the forces acting on the cover door or the battery pack during (possibly less than apt) handling of or maneuvering with the device, or because of inattentive deliberate action on the part of the user of the device. This, of course, is very disadvantageous not only because the batteries themselves, or the battery pack itself, may become damaged if either falls to the floor or other hard surface as a result of such accidental dissociation, but also because the circuitry contained in the device may suffer as a result of the attendant sudden loss of power thereto, either physically or figuratively by losing data temporarily stored or processed therein, or the like.
In addition, some other problems have been encountered when using previously proposed portable battery-operated electronic devices of the kind here under consideration. For one, the useful life of the battery pack, that is, the period of time during which it can power the device in a single session without depleting the amount of electric energy stored therein to a dangerous level, is limited, often to much less than the duration of the task to be performed. This means, of course, that either the entire device has to be put down somewhere while the battery pack is being recharged, either while still mounted on the device or after having been removed therefrom and installed in a battery-charging implement, or the exhausted battery pack has to be replaced by a fresh one.
Even in the latter case, though, there are instances when it is necessary or desirable to leave the device itself, whether or not it carries the battery pack at the moment, unattended at a location that is freely accessible to the general public, such as in a grocery, variety or department store or the like. To be able to do this without potentially losing the device and/or its battery pack to unsavory characters or to pranksters, it is desirable to be able to not only temporarily store the electronic device and/or its battery pack at the chosen location in a manner that would, effectively avoid accidental removal of the device, or of its battery pack, or both, from a cradle partially accommodating the same, with potential damage to the device or battery pack as a result of falling and hitting a hard surface, but also to prevent deliberate but unauthorized removal of the device and/or the battery pack from the cradle in a rather simple and yet reliable manner. This the known prior art fails to do.